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Tired of having to
constantly fend off sustained
Italian
attacks along the Isonzo River, Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff
Conrad von
Hotzendorf resolved in early 1916 to mount an Austrian offensive through
the Trentino mountain passes towards Italy's northern plain, trapping the
latter's main forces along the Isonzo and others based in the Carnic Alps.

Although meeting with
notable initial success the Italian Army under
Luigi Cadorna
ultimately regrouped - despatching half a million Italian troops into the
Trentino - and expelled the Austrians from Italian territory by the end of
the month.

Reproduced below is a
summary of the Austrian offensive from the viewpoint of the U.S. Ambassador
to Italy, Thomas Nelson Page, as documented in his post-war memoirs.

Click
here to read the official Italian statement on the offensive;
click here to
read the official German military observer's report.

The Asiago Offensive by
the U.S. Ambassador to Italy Thomas Nelson Page

It was to Italy that many
eyes were turned in the early part of 1916, amid the gloom of the
destruction of Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania; the invigoration of Turkey
and Bulgaria; the obscurity of Greece; the increase in the submarine
campaign, and the murderous persistence of the attack on Verdun-Italy,
without coal, grain, or metal save what she could obtain with difficulty;
with scarcely anything in sufficient quantity - Italy not yet at war with
Germany, nor certain that she would be; with her Sphinx-like Minister for
Foreign Affairs, and her strong political antiwar element; with her men,
amid the measureless snows of the Trentino and Carnic and Julian Alps,
driving, in Arctic cold, under incredible hardships, tunnels through
mountains of ice and rock, scaling icy precipices, swinging their cables
across vast gorges.

Would she stand it?
Could she stand it?

As the spring drew nearer
it was evident that Italy was irrevocably bent on getting Gorizia and
Trieste, and Austria-Hungary began to feel the need of some action that
would weaken the incessant drive that Italy was making on the Isonzo front,
and relieve herself from the ever-increasing pressure toward Gorizia and
Trieste.

Moreover, the "gradual
advance of the Italians into the Trentino, which was approaching closer and
closer to the main lines of his defence, aroused in the enemy a desire to
free himself from a pressure which was growing more threatening."

Russia had been driven back
sufficiently to give Austria a freer hand on her western and southern front,
but was preparing for another attempt later on. Germany was being held
up at Verdun. The time appeared ripe for a blow at Italy before Russia
should be ready.

Austria accordingly made
carefully elaborate secret preparations for an offensive against Italy
through the Trentino.

The offensive began on May
14, with an artillery bombardment of great violence along the entire Italian
front, from East to West, from the Carso to the Giudicaria.

It soon became evident,
however, that the real assault was on the Trentino front, on the sector
between the Val Lagarina and the Val Sugana. Here, after a terrific
bombardment, the Infantry in great masses were launched to the attack under
an artillery cover unprecedented on that front in violence or effectiveness.
Eighteen divisions, or some 400,000 men and some 2,000 guns, were employed
in the offensive.

The Austrians knew every
foot of ground: mountain and valley, and their attack was admirably planned
and well carried out. Both Artillery and Infantry were skilfully
handled. The Italian advanced positions were swept away by the flood
of shell poured out on them. Then, under the tremendous bombardment of
the great guns, moved forward as required, other positions were rendered
untenable.

From point after point,
position after position, the Italians were driven, with increasing losses in
men and guns. Austria's dream appeared on the eve of realization.

When June came in the
Italians, after two weeks of as fierce and unremitting battle as had taken
place in the war, with every advantage save one against them, had made their
last stand above and across the mouths of the valleys that opened on the
Venetian Plain; and the Austrians, believing themselves victorious, were
pressing forward with all the ardour born of success and lust of loot, and
heightened by the furious desire to wreak their vengeance on an enemy whom
their Emperor had denounced to them as having betrayed Austria.

A few days later (June 3)
General Cadorna, confident of the stability of his army, now strung to the
highest pitch by the peril to their Patria, announced to his Government that
the immediate danger of invasion of Italy was past. The Italians had
stopped the Austrians. The latter were now dashing in impotent rage
against the Italian lines. The Italians had been ordered to hold them
to the death, and they held them.

The Italians knew now that
Italy herself was at stake, and all Italy was now in the fight. For
some time, notwithstanding Cadorna's encouraging announcement, the issue
appeared to hang in the balance.

Austria, balked at the very
moment of seizing the prize, as she deemed it, was loath to relinquish her
aim, and continued to hurl her masses against the Italian positions, only to
break in foam against them. Their force was spent, and as the Italians
grew stronger the tide turned.